Professionals Logging Onto Social Networking Sites

<p><strong>St. Petersburg, Fla. &mdash; May 29</strong><br />If you think the explosion of social networking is relegated to the high school and college crowd, you might be surprised at the results of a recent survey on online social networking. </p><p>The survey, conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp &ndash; formerly HRI) revealed that 65 percent of business professionals are clicking and connecting via personal and professional social networking Web sites.<br /><br />&ldquo;We expected to see a number of respondents utilizing social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook for personal reasons, but we were intrigued at the high percentage of business professionals that use social networking for professional purposes,&rdquo; said Jay Jamrog, i4cp senior vice president of research. &ldquo;In an age where more and more employees work remotely and people frequently change companies, it makes sense that the business community would turn to the Web to stay connected.&rdquo;<br /><br />The survey said the most popular site for professional use, by far, was LinkedIn, a site aimed at the business professional, followed by Yahoo! 360 and MySpace, which is more often associated with a younger generation.<br /><br />The study revealed employees are gravitating quickly toward leveraging social networks for very traditional business uses. </p><p>About half (52 percent) of respondents whose organizations are using social networking sites do so to keep internal staff and remote employees connected, and 47 percent of respondents use the networks to connect with potential clients and to showcase their skills. </p><p>Thirty-five percent say they use networks to assist them in finding a job. <br /><br />But it&rsquo;s not all about connecting in the conventional sense. Networks also are being leveraged to raise the IQ of organizations. </p><p>More than half (55 percent) of those using the networks do so to share best practices with colleagues, and 49 percent use them to get answers to issues they are facing. </p><p>This is an area that experts think could help social networking really take off inside corporations.<br /><br />&ldquo;Companies and employees have often gravitated to trade associations and shows for one primary benefit: community,&rdquo; Jamrog said. &ldquo;Social networks have opened a new dynamic in bringing that community online, and the ability to share what&rsquo;s working and what isn&rsquo;t in real time is invaluable to many employees today. </p><p>&quot;We expect to see this continue in earnest among corporations, and we particularly expect to see the small- to medium-size business market gravitate here so that they can augment traditionally thin staffs with expertise from larger organizations.&rdquo;<br /><br />Of those respondents who do not use social networks, the top reason (37 percent) is simply that they don&#39;t know what networks to use. </p><p>The majority of respondents (59 percent) said they would likely use social networks if they knew that such use would assist their professional development (31 percent say they already do) and 77 percent would welcome using them if they thought the networks could aid organizational efficiency.<br /><br />The Social Network Practitioner Consensus Survey was conducted by i4cp, in conjunction with HR.com, in May 2007. A total of 323 organizations participated.</p>